Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Founders Day

So this is a special post for all my sisters out there who read my blog.You all know that today is a very special day. On November 11th, 1874 four women came together at Syracuse university in Syracuse, NY and found Gamma Phi Beta.

The four women attended college at a time where is was not common for women get receive an undergraduate education. However, Frances E Haven's father was the chancellor of Syracuse at the time, and would not deny his daughter an education.Frances, along with Helen M. Dodge, E. Adeline Curtis and Mary A. Bingham decided that a society was needed, a society for women, to foster a nurturing place where they could come and discuss their thoughts. Rather than joining the already establish Alpha Phi, the girls decided to found their own group, with their own ideals. A higher type of womanhood is what they longed for, and the saying would soon become our motto and part of our mission statement.The ladies would meet weekly in the study of one of their professors, Dr. Brown. Because of his generosity they adopted brown and mode as the official colors of the sorority (though pink is often used today, as the official flower is the pink carnation).The ladies were different, they were special. So for them, Dr. Frank Smalley coined a new word. All other woman's organizations before Gamma Phi Beta were woman's fraternities. Frater is a latin word meaning brother, or brotherhood. Although fraternity ties were strong, the ladies of Gamma Phi knew that what they had was something different. The word sorority was made just for them. They were a sisterhood, with bonds special and different from all others.

On this day, Gamma Phi's everywhere give thanks to Helen M. Dodge, Frances E. Haven, E. Adeline Curtis and Mary A. Bingham for founding an organization that we have all become sisters in. We are sisters ever true...